Racial Divisions and Criminal Justice: Evidence from Southern State Courts
研究利用美国南部四个州的司法管辖区差异，发现种族异质性高的地区惩罚更严厉，若所有地区采用同质地区的严厉程度，监禁率及种族差距可降低15%。
The US criminal justice system is exceptionally punitive. We test whether racial heterogeneity is one cause, exploiting cross-jurisdiction variation in punishment severity in four Southern states. We estimate the causal effect of jurisdiction on arrest outcomes using a fixed effects model that incorporates extensive charge and defendant controls. We validate our estimates using defendants charged in multiple jurisdictions. Consistent with a model of ingroup bias in electorate preferences, the relationship between local severity and Black population share follows an inverted U-shape. Within states, defendants are 27–54 percent more likely to be incarcerated in “peak” heterogeneous jurisdictions than in homogeneous jurisdictions. We estimate that confinement rates and race-based confinement rate gaps would fall by 15 percent if all jurisdictions adopted the severity of homogeneous jurisdictions within their state.